A day after overhauling Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Centre on Saturday asked for nine-month time to enable the government to make the national tax law glitch free. Addressing India Inc on Saturday at the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance, said government was in the process of removing all glitches and loopholes in GST implementation. He urged the people not to measure the new tax regime with cynicism.

He also indicated that 28 per cent GST slab is bound to be reduced gradually as the GST Council will evolve alternative mechanism once the tax collections streamlines. “The people of India and Indian industry in particular should not measure the execution of GST in its first phase of three months since it is a vast tax reform after independence. The government should be given a minimum of one year time for it to perfect the implementation leading to a win-win situation for all stakeholders,” the minister said.

He said the GST Council has already taken pro-active measures in rationalising GST rates, and assured that the trend would continue wherever taxation is on the higher side. “The 28 per cent GST slab will fall as per genuine and legitimate aspirations of the people in general and industry in particular,” Naqvi said.

Industrialist and president of PHD Chamber Gopal Jiwarajka said there has been mixed impact on various sectors. He also called for a ‘surgical strike’ rather than piecemeal measures to remove the anomalies.

Earlier on Friday, the GST council that met here for seven hours chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with the state finance ministers as ministers, decided to fine tune the law and bring it in line with Prime Minister Modi’s goal of “ease of business” as that may also help the economy claw out of a 3-year long growth slump.